Learn 14 GO Expressions in English

Hello.

My name is Emma and in today's video I am going to teach you some very important conversational English.

I'm going to teach you some expressions we use a lot, and all of these expressions have

one thing in common: They all use the word "go".

So, "go" is one of the first words you probably will learn in English.

We use it when we talk about going to a different place, so for example: I go to school or I

go to the park.

So, we have "go" and it has that meaning, but it also can have a lot of other meanings

in English, and those are the ones we're going to look at today.

So, again, we use it a lot in conversation.

So let's get started with some of the most basic ways we use "go" in conversation.

So I have here the question.

One of the first questions you ask a person when you meet them or when you see them, and

that is: "How are you?"

We often use "go" in a way that means the same thing as this, so we often say: "How's

it going?"

"How's it going?"

means the same thing as: "How are you?"

Notice that there is an apostrophe and an "s".

This actually is: "How is it going?" but we like to use a contraction in conversation.

It's a little bit more informal, so we would probably use this with maybe our friends or

our family, or you know, somebody we meet but maybe not in a job interview.

Okay?

So we use this a lot: "How's it going?"

If you are in Australia, you might see: "How you going?"

We would not say this in North America, I don't think we say this in England, but in

Australia you will often hear people say: "How you going?" and that means the same thing

as: "How are you?"

Okay?

I was very confused when I went to Australia.

I thought that, you know, people were making grammar mistakes, but it turns out that this

is actually a very common way in Australia to say: "How are you?"

Another thing we can use with "go" is if we want to find out how something specific, you

know, how is something.

So, for example, maybe your friend has just started taking some new classes, you might

say to them: "How are your classes going?" or "How is your job going?", "How...?"

You know, if you're talking about the past: "How did the interview go?"

So we often use "how" with, you know, some event or situation, and "going" to ask how

did it...

Like, you know, how...

How it was.

Okay?

And you'll see this a lot.

Okay, so these are some of the ways we use "go" when we're talking about how someone

is, and we will come back to this one, but let's talk about some of the responses first.

When somebody says: "How are you?"

you often respond with: "I'm fine."

So it's the same thing with when somebody asks you: "How's it going?"

You can say: "I'm fine", but you can also use "go" in your response, so you can say:

-"How's it going?"

-"It's going well."

or "It's going good."

I know that's not, you know, great grammar, but we do use "good" a lot when people ask

us how we're doing, like, in conversational English, not in written English.

But yeah: "It's going well", "It's going good", "It's going amazing", "It's going terrible".

Okay?

So you can use different adjectives here to describe how you're feeling or how your day

is going.

You know, you can also just talk generally.

You can say: "It's" or you can also say: "Everything" or "Things".

There are many variations of this.

You might say: -"How's it going?"

-"Everything is going amazing."

or: "Things are great.", "Things are going good."

Okay?

So there's a lot of variation.

If somebody asks you how, you know: "How are your classes going?" or "How is...?

How is work going?"

your answer could also be: "My classes are going great.", "Work is going great."

You know: "School is going amazing."

Or maybe, you know: "School's going terrible."

Okay?

So you can use this in a lot of different ways.

We also have this question which people sometimes ask when, you know, they see you and, you

know, maybe it's your friend and they're meeting you, they might say: "Hey.

What's going on?"

Okay?

So: "What's going on?"

This one you've got to be careful with, because: "What's going on?" can have multiple meanings,

and it all depends on the way you say it.

So, when you say: "What's going on?" it's very similar to: "How are you?"

You just also have to be careful about your tone.

So, for example: "What's going on?" is different than: "What's going on?"

Okay?

So you see how I changed my voice?

So if you say this in a very friendly: "What's going on?"

way, then it means pretty much: "How are you doing?" or "How are you?"

And the response to this might be something like: "Oh, what's going on?

Nothing much.

Not much is happening.

You know, I've just started classes, they're going good."

So, you know, you might answer in this way.

There are many different ways to answer, but: "Nothing much" means: "Yeah, you know, my

life is pretty much the same."

So these are all common at the very beginning of conversation.

Okay?

And, again, be careful with formality.

"How's it going?", "How you going?", "What's going on?"

These are informal, so you use them with your friends, you use them with people your age,

but you might not use them in maybe a business meeting or maybe a very serious situation.

All right, so now let's look at some other expressions where we use the word "go".

Okay, so we talked a little bit about: "Hey, what's going on?" in terms of "go" expressions.

Now I'm going to teach you another meaning of: "What's going on?"

"What's going on" or "What's going on here?" can also mean that maybe you're confused about

something, or you're actually asking: "What's happening?"

Okay?

So: "What's going on?" can also mean: "What's happening?"

So imagine if you saw a car accident, you might go up to somebody and say: "What's going

on here?

What's happening?"

Okay?

So they have the same meaning.

You know, also, like another way we use: "What's going on here?" is with parents and kids.

I remember when I was a kid, any time I was doing something bad, my mom wouldn't know

what I was doing but she would somehow know I was doing something bad.

So she didn't know what it was, but she knew...

Maybe I had a guilty look on my face, she always knew.

So she would always say to me: "What's going on here?"

meaning, you know: "What are you doing?

I know you're doing something bad.

What's going on here?"

And so that's why using your tone is very important for this, because: "What's going...?"

Or: "Hey, what's going on?" is different than: "What's going on?"

Okay?

So be very careful about the tone you're using because it's not the words that change the

meaning, it's the way you say it that changes the meaning for: "What's going on?"

Okay, we also have, you know: "Something is going on."

Or, you know...

This is similar to this, but: "Something is going on here", I'm not using it as a question.

I put a lot of question marks to show something is going on, means you're confused, you know

something is happening but you don't know what is happening.

So, sometimes, you know, for example, maybe you have two friends and, you know, they're

your friends and suddenly they're starting to act a bit funny around each other, and

you're thinking: "Hmm, these guys are acting kind of strange but I don't know why."

Okay?

Maybe they're secretly in love, maybe they've been dating for the past five months and,

you know, you just had no idea.

So when you see something and you know that something is happening, but you don't know

what exactly is happening, you can say: "Hmm, something is going on.

I don't know what's going on, but something is going on."

And I'm blocking these because it's not a question, it's a statement, but this...

It's pretty much, you know, in your mind you're thinking: "What's...

What's happening?

Something is going on.

I wonder what it is."

Okay, we can also use "go" when we're talking about change.

Things changing, things becoming different, and a lot of the times we use "go" when we're

talking about what some people would say are bad changes.

Okay?

So, for example: "go crazy".

Okay?

So, like, you know, somebody is going crazy right now.

Their girlfriend just broke up with them, they're really upset, they're going crazy.

Okay?

So there's a change there, there's a change in their behaviour.

And some people would say it's a negative change, or you know: "going mad".

We can also say, you know: "That guy's going mad", meaning crazy.

Not angry.

You know, in this case these two have the same meaning.

Or, you know, I personally like grey hair, but some people when their hair changes to

grey, some people see it as a bad thing.

I don't see it as a bad thing, but some people get upset about it, and so for those people

who think, you know, grey hair is a bad thing, when their hair changes from brown to grey,

maybe they say: "Oh, you know, his hair went grey." or "His hair is going grey."

So we use "go" with the colour, and again, "grey" means your hair colour.

Or, you know, I like people who are bald, but some people might see, like, losing your

hair as, like, a negative thing.

I don't, you know.

My brother is actually bald, but some people would see it as a negative thing, and so they

would say: "go bald", you know: "My brother went bald."

So it's a change from having hair to having no hair, and again, this...

I'm going to say it again: I don't think it's bad necessarily, some people might say it's

bad, but you know, it's all opinion-based.

Now, this is different from...

We have other changes that happen, we have: "old", "tired", "ill", these are also things

people see as negative changes, but we don't use "go" with these things.

We actually use the word "get", so you get old, you get tired, you get ill.

So, it really is, you know, sometimes we use "go", sometimes we use "get" when we're talking

about negative changes.

You just need to, like, learn the word and figure out: Is it with "go" or is it with

"get"?

But again, this is another way we use "go".

So now let's look at some other examples of "go".

Okay, so another way that we use "go"...

So as you can see, there are many different ways we use "go" instead of just: "go to the

park".

We use it in many different expressions.

Another expression is: "There you go" or "Here you go".

Now, this is one we use a lot in conversation.

Okay?

So we don't really use it in writing, but in conversation you will hear it a lot.

And so what does it mean?

Well, usually we use: "There you go" or "Here you go" when we're giving something to somebody.

It's what we say as we give something to somebody.

So imagine I have this marker, I want to give you the marker, I will say: "There you go"

or "Here you go".

A lot of students get very, like, worried about the difference between "there" and "here".

For these expressions usually it means pretty much the same thing, so don't worry about

it.

You know, if you say: "Here we go", or you know: "There you go", it sounds the same to

native speakers of English.

So, don't worry so much about if you use "there" or "here".

Okay?

You can use both.

So, my example is: -"Can I use your pen?"

-"There you go" or -"Here you go".

And so this also means: "Yes you can."

If somebody is asking you for something: -"Can I borrow, you know...?

Or can I have a piece of paper?"

-"Yes, there you go."

It means you're giving them permission and you're also handing them something.

You can also say it if you do something for somebody.

So, for example, maybe somebody wants you to give them a whole new hairstyle, so you

work on their hairstyle, you make their hair look really nice, and you might say: "There

you go", meaning, you know: "I've just done this for you."

So we use this a lot in speech.

Main one, though, is when you're giving something to somebody, you say: "There we go."

Okay, we can also use: "There we go again" or "There you go again", you can change the

subject here, depending on the situation.

You can use this when you want to show you are kind of annoyed or, you know, this is

an annoyed face.

It's not a happy face.

It's more of an angry face.

So when you want to show you are frustrated about something.

So, for example, I'll give you a good example of this: Imagine you have a friend who gets

very mad or very angry, and he gets angry often.

Okay?

So imagine you want to go to a movie theatre, and your friend is supposed to come with you

but, you know, his girlfriend and him had a fight, now he doesn't want to come, so maybe

you're a little bit annoyed.

You're not really happy about that.

If this is something that happens often...

Okay?

So it happens again, and again, and again, you would probably say this, you would say:

"Ah, there we go again" or "Here we go again".

And this means...

It's showing that something keeps happening and, you know, it's making you kind of annoyed

or angry because it happens a lot.

You know, another example of this might be maybe you have a friend who, like, you know,

drinks a lot, and maybe you get like a phone call and your friend says, you know: "I can't

find my house.

I don't know where I am.

I'm lost in the city.

You know, please help me.

Come find me."

If you get this call every Friday night, you're going to start getting, like: "Oh, again?"

And so what you would say is: "Ugh, Chelsea's drunk again.

Here we go again" or "There we go again".

Okay?

So that's the meaning of it, it's when you're showing you're annoyed with something that

happens a lot.

On the positive side, so on the happy side of this, we also use: "There we go" or "There

you go" when we're showing encouragement for something.

Okay?

When we want to encourage somebody or, you know, congratulate them for doing something...

Doing a good job on something.

Okay?

So, for example, imagine...

This is so far from the truth, but imagine I'm a hockey player and I'm really good at

hockey and I love hockey, and you know, I'm playing in a game and my team wins.

We're so excited.

We can say: "There we go!

We did it!"

Okay?

Meaning: "Yes, we won the game!

There we go!"

Okay?

So we're encouraging and congratulating ourselves.

Maybe if I'm not included, maybe if I'm talking to you and you just did really well on your

English test, I'd say: "There you go!"

Okay?

And sometimes we also do the, you know, this motion: "There you go!" to show our excitement

that you did well.

We can also say: "Way to go!"

Okay?

To show, like, you know: "Well done!

Way to go!"

So you might see a teacher write this on, you know, a test if you did a good job, and

so it means the same thing, it means, you know: "Good job.

I want to congratulate you for doing something well."

All right, so now let's look at some more expressions of "go".

Okay, so I really like the next expression because it's very positive, very upbeat, it's

a very good message, and that's: "Go for it!"

So, we use this a lot in conversation, all of these expressions are very conversational

expressions we use.

"Go for it!" is what we tell somebody when they want to do something and they're not

sure if they should or not, but it is a good idea.

Maybe they're afraid to do something, and you want to tell them: "No, do it", you could

say: "Go for it."

It kind of reminds me of a Nike commercial.

You know how they say: "Just do it"?

"Go for it" is kind of the same idea.

So, for example, maybe somebody says to you: "You know what?

I really want to get this job, but I don't think I'm a good candidate.

I don't think I'm going to get the job.

You know, maybe I don't have enough education or, you know, my English isn't good enough,

somebody might say to you: "Go for it" or "Go for it anyway", and it's, you know, to

tell you, you know, despite all that, do it, apply for that job.

Maybe you're thinking about going to school but you don't think, you know: -"Well, maybe

I shouldn't do it, or I don't know."

-"Go for it" means: Yeah, do it.

So it's a way to encourage people to do something.

And we often use it when somebody is having doubts.

They're not sure because maybe they don't have confidence.

So we often say: "Go for it" to our friends or, you know, to tell them: "Yeah, you can

do it."

Another way we use this is when we're talking about food, if there's one piece of candy

left or one slice of cake left, or you know, one apple left, whatever you're eating and

there's only one left and somebody wants to eat it, but they're worried maybe you want

to eat it, you can tell them: "Yeah, you want it?

Go for it."

Means: "Yeah, you can eat it", so we also use it in that example as well.

Okay, the next one I wanted to talk about, the next "go" expression is: "Go out of your

way" for someone or something.

So when you go out of your way for someone or something it means that you do something

with more effort...

Okay?

So special effort.

So it's something you don't usually do, but you do something that makes your life a little

bit more difficult to help someone or to do something.

So, for example, you know, maybe I'm going home and my mom calls me and says: "Can you

pick me up some bread?"

Now, even though I'm close to home, this is my home, this is, you know, my car, and the

bread's over here, I go out of my way to get the bread.

So I do more work to accomplish some sort of go-, go-, goal.

Sorry.

You know, another example: "I always go out of my way to help someone."

Okay?

So, you know, even though there's an easy way to do something, I will do extra things

to help somebody.

Or maybe, you know...

You know, some teachers go out of their way for students.

Maybe their student is having a lot of trouble with, you know, the present perfect or, you

know, some sort of grammar, and so even though the teacher finishes her...

His or her work at maybe 4pm, they will stay for an extra hour to help the student.

The teacher is going out of their way, meaning they're putting extra effort in, but it's

something, you know, they want to do, they want to help the student.

So: "Go out of your way" means you make a special effort to help someone or to do something.

Okay?

So we've looked at a lot of "go" expressions today.

I recommend watching this video a couple of times because we have covered a lot and, you

know, usually your memory can only hold so many new pieces of vocabulary at a time.

So it's actually good to maybe concentrate on maybe three expressions, get those down,

get used to those expressions, and then watch it again, learn another three expressions

we covered.

You know, that can be really, really helpful.

You can also check out our website at www.engvid.com, and there you can do a quiz to practice a

lot of what you learned today.

I highly recommend that, too, and I also recommend you take the quiz multiple times.

You know, maybe you are really good at the quiz this week, but maybe next week you've

forgotten some of the words, so it's good to do these quizzes multiple times to really

help you remember the material.

You can also subscribe to my channel; I have a lot of videos on all sorts of topics, including

vocabulary, IELTS, pronunciation, grammar, just all sort of different topics.

So I highly recommend you check that out.

Thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.